The recent deaths of four long-term heads of state in the Arab world heralded important changes, as political power passed from one generation to the next. Shedding light on these changes, Arab Elites explores the attitudes and political agendas of the new leadership emerging throughout the region.

A strong analytical framework informs the authors' discussion of elites    More >

Why do authoritarian regimes prevail in the Middle East, while successful democratic transitions are occurring elsewhere in the developing world? Authoritarianism in the Middle East addresses this question, focusing on the role of political institutions and the strategic choices made by both rulers and opposition challengers. The authors eschew cultural explanations, highlighting instead the    More >

Moving from the revolutionary rhetoric prominent in the early days of President Hafez al-Assad’s regime to the present stance of the country’s economic reformers and rising business class, this new study traces the evolution of Ba’thist ideological discourse in Syria.

The first part of the book focuses on the trend, over the course of the first Assad presidency,    More >

What explains the enduring rule of authoritarian regimes in the Arab world? Nicola Pratt offers an innovative approach to this recurring question, shedding light on the failure of democratization by examining both the broad dynamics of authoritarianism in the region and the particular role of civil society.

Pratt appraises the part that civil society actors played in the    More >

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A Choice Outstanding Academic Book!

Fattah's survey analysis of more    More >

Though the regimes of Egyptian presidents Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak have been decidedly different, the nature of personal authoritarian rule in Egypt has remained virtually unchanged across more than five decades. Maye Kassem traces the shaping of contemporary Egyptian politics, considering why authoritarian rule has been so resilient and assessing the mechanisms that have allowed for its    More >

Jonathan Hill explores the multiple causes of two decades of profound political change, social and economic upheaval, and bitter conflict in postindependence Algeria.

Hill focuses on the relationship between identity and sociopolitical stability as he examines the trajectory of Algerian nation building.  How did French colonization and the war of    More >

This unusually accessible book provides a comprehensive picture of Islam in contemporary Egyptian politics and society, emphasizing its diversity and heterogeneity.

Tracing the development of Islam as a social, political, and economic force in Egypt, Sullivan and Abed-Kotob analyze the role it plays in governance and opposition to political authority, in social relations, and in the    More >

Jordan in Transition offers a cogent and compelling analysis of the country's domestic and international politics.

Ryan argues that there have been four dramatic transitions in Jordan's recent past: ambitious economic restructuring, efforts toward political liberalization, realignments in foreign relations (culminating in the 1994 peace agreement with Israel), and the    More >

In the nearly fifteen years since the first edition of Kurdish Ethnonationalism was published, major developments in the Middle East have transformed the nature of Kurdish politics. Nader Entessar now provides a thorough, up-to-date exploration of Kurdish nationalism in the region—including the emergence of parties as major political actors, the responses of state governments    More >

The vitality and significance of parliaments in the Arab world is one of the essential—but overlooked—stories of political life in the 1990s. Baaklini, Denoeux, and Springborg present the first comprehensive, comparative analysis of modern Arab legislatures.

Drawing on their extensive experience as both scholars and project consultants, the authors Yemen). Their work is of    More >

Questions of identity and ethnicity have always been part of the intricate web of politics in the Arab World, but the recent expansion of political participation has made these issues more political, more visible, and more acute. This book offers a comprehensive discussion of minorities and ethnic politics in eight Arab countries. Focusing on the strategic political choices made by minorities,    More >

The Arab-Israeli conflict in general and the Palestinian intifada in particular have given rise to a wave of critical reappraisals of the Israeli experience—reappraisals that increasingly have come from those who can only be described as mainstream Israelis. Situated within this emerging tradition of scholarly criticism, this book addresses a variety of problems that arise from the fact that    More >

Cheryl Rubenberg's richly textured analysis provides a case study of the multifaceted and deleterious effects of patriarchy among Palestinians living in the rural villages and refugee camps of theWest Bank: its negative consequences for men as well as women, for democratization, and for progress toward the creation of a more just, equitable, and prosperous society.

Privileging the voices of    More >

For more than a decade, policymakers and observers in the Muslim world and the West have struggled with the specter of political Islam—or "Islamic fundamentalism"—often confounded by myriad and contradictory images. This book offers a thorough, objective examination of the impact of political Islam on domestic and international politics in countries ranging from North Africa    More >

Long dominated by authoritarian regimes, the Arab World is now experiencing a variety of factors—both internal and external—-that pose the challenge of change. Significant degrees of political liberalization have occurred already in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Kuwait, although the extent to which this presages eventual democratization is far from self-evident. Elsewhere—for    More >

Drawing on the theoretical insights offered in its companion volume, this book examines the processes of and prospects for political reform in 10 Arab countries—Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen—selected to demonstrate a broad range of contexts, trajectories, and political potentials.

The authors have gone beyond the traditional    More >

Political participation in authoritarian regimes is usually considered insignificant, or important only insofar as it promotes democracy. Turning this common wisdom on its head, Political Participation in the Middle East demonstrates the vitality, variety, and significance of political activism across the MENA region. Through an in-depth exploration of seven countries, the authors address    More >

The Turkish party system has undergone significant changes since the 1940s, moving from a two-party system to one encompassing nineteen parties— and resulting in a highly fragmented parliament. The contributors to this volume assess the intertwined effects of party fragmentation and voter volatility in Turkey. Presenting a wealth of data, they illuminate the trajectory of democratic    More >

Power and Succession in Arab Monarchies provides an essential compendium of information regarding the politically charged issue of succession in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Based on scarce source material and a wide range of inside information, this exhaustive reference:

• traces the rise of each    More >

What are the likely consequences for Syria of its new European Partnership Agreement?  Addressing this question, the authors examine the origins of the agreement, its aims, and the (political) reasons that it was accepted by Syria despite the potential problems it poses for the national economy.

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Exploring the recent trajectory of Syria’s economy, the authors consider the utility of the transition paradigm—developed to study change in the former communist states—as an explanatory approach.

In the first part of the book, Samer Abboud examines Syria’s shift to a “social market economy,” focusing on similarities in and differences between the    More >

Much has been made of the role that Saudi Arabia's education system played in fostering the hatred that fueled the September 11 terror attacks. But do Saudi textbooks deserve to be faulted for fostering violence? And have Wahhabi ideas infiltrated the Islamic textbooks used in public schools throughout the Middle East? Confronting these questions, Teaching Islam explores the political and    More >

This important new textbook offers a theoretically grounded, systematic examination of the foreign policies of ten Middle East states.

The authors first establish a common analytical framework for studying the individual cases; they also delineate the broader regional and global arenas within which Middle Eastern governments operate. Subsequent chapters assess the foreign policies of the    More >

Sacred to three traditions, the Old City of Jerusalem is the Gordian knot at the center of the Middle East conflict. This book explores how religious and political interests compete for control of this sacred space, and how that competition affects the Middle East peace process.

Dumper analyzes the religious dynamics in the Old City in political terms, investigating rivalries and tensions at    More >

This volume explores the development of Syria's political economy under the Ba'th, particularly the role of the state in facilitating or obstructing economic development. Raymond Hinnebusch provides a brief overview of the literature and debates on the issue. His examination of Syria's political economy under populism (1963-2000) is followed by Soren Schmidt's analysis of the post-populist period    More >

The United Arab Emirates has remained a mainstay of stability in an increasingly volatile Middle East, managing to maintain a traditional polity despite the impact of rapid modernization and globalization. This in-depth study explores the many contradictions that characterize the UAE and its position within the international system.

Davidson first provides a detailed historical    More >

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Rejecting theories of economic deprivation and psychological alienation, Mohammed Hafez offers a provocative analysis of the factors that contribute to protracted violence in the Muslim world today.

Hafez combines a sophisticated theoretical approach and detailed case studies to show that the primary source of Islamist insurgencies lies in    More >